The Western Bulldogs’ thrilling two-point victory over Port Adelaide has been dampened by a concussion to star ruckman Tim English.
English, who played a vital role in the victory, left the field late in the final term after a nasty clash with teammate Matthew Kennedy.
Senior coach Luke Beveridge revealed post-game that English had failed a SCAT test, placing him in concussion protocols and ruling him out of the Bulldogs’ clash with Carlton next Saturday.
“He just failed his SCAT so he’ll be out for whatever period of time,” Beveridge said.
“He’s got a history there, so as we do with all our players who might have concussion management (for a) period of time, we’ll be conservative and we’ll look after him.
“So at this stage it’ll definitely be one week off then beyond that we’ll just work through it."
Beveridge said he was proud of how his side managed to grind out the victory away from home.
“It’s a good word proud, there’s some integrity there on performance,” he said.
“It was a bit messy and Port seemed to be pretty efficient, they got some score from not a lot of forward-half opportunities.
“After you drop four in a row you’re almost learning how to win again, so I’m really pleased the
boys hung in there.
“We had some gilt-edged, open-field opportunities in the third quarter which would’ve given us a bit more scoreboard ascendancy, which we just blew and kicked it straight to them.
“But the disappointment of that didn’t overwhelm them and we hung in there. It’s the old Divinyls song, there’s a fine line between pleasure and pain.”
After struggling to make an impact for much of the game prior, Beveridge praised Harvey Gallagher for standing up when it mattered and kicking the point which ultimately won them the game.
“It had been a bit of a tough night for ‘Gags’ but he managed to at least hang in there,” he said.
“It was another classic example of it might not be your day or night, but it might be your moment and it definitely was his.
“He probably epitomised what a handful of our a few of our boys were going through, then others were quite sensational.
“I thought Michael Sellwood was quite brilliant down back and the backline held together reasonably well."
